White Angel Breadline (1933)

 

Although Dorothea Lange is best known for her works involving the Depression-era she made under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration, however White Angel Breadline (1933) is one of the first photographs that Lange attempted with street photography. This photograph is one of Lange’s first photos that truly encapsulates the ability and solicitude to structure a photograph to modernist principles. White Angel Breadline, brought her to the intentness of critics and in 1934 Williard Van Dyke wrote an important article about her work in Camera Craft. Dorothea Lange had often referred to White Angel Breadline as one of her breakthroughs with documentary photography. 

 

Lange had photographed this photo before she had started working for the Farm Security Administration, during the Depression-era. When Dorothea Lange had taken this photo, she had only recently started to associate with street photography, photographing the homeless, hungry, and unemployed. Her first attempt at street photography was nerve-racking, as she was concerned that she was angering her subject, invading their privacy and worried that the process would be too slow, since she was used to studio photography which was more forgiving in terms of time. White Angel Jungle was a soup kitchen near Lange's San Francisco studio, where many homeless people and unemployed waited there for food. Lange had photographed a man with a tin cup waiting in the breadline hunched over the railing with his hat shielding his pallid face, seeming lost. 

 

Lange states, “… I saw something, and I encompassed it, and I had it,” about White Angel Breadline. Although it was Lange’s first attempt at street photography, she had seized the opportunity to take a photo which epitomises the era that Lange was living. The quote reflects much of the work that Lange implements in her future years, where Lange’s style of photography is ‘encompassing’ a moment in time and capturing it without any background knowledge of her subject or little interaction. 

 

The photo was taken at White Angel Jungle, a soup kitchen in San Francisco in 1933. The shot displays a concealed man lining at the breadline of the soup kitchen, hunched over the wooden barrier with his hands clasped together and a tin cup. It is evident in the photo that the main subject has his back turned away from all the others, isolating himself. Looking at the photo, there is immediate vectors that run horizontally along the picture to frame the main subject adding dynamism to the scene, which is a modernist technique that Lange has used in much of her photography. Colour is an element that is distinctive in presenting the social issue of poverty. The main subject in the centre third of the photo acts as an lightning rod for the audience’s emotional engagement. The sea of dark attire, including the monotonous grey-toned brimmed hats amplify the poignancy that Lange has captured. The vast number of people that are captured in White Angel Breadline further elaborates on Lange’s concern. The depiction of an empty cup and the contrast of his begrimed rimmed hat against the untainted hats constitute to the sombre yet intriguing portrait, depicting poverty and the homeless. Lange focuses on the man’s hat and face, which depict a study of texture through the comparison of the hat, against the subject’s weathered skin. 

 

The social issues that Lange has successfully photographed is issues that Lange has been contiguous with for many of her works. The issue of poverty and homelessness that is apparent in this photo is successfully captured by Lange. It further depicts the issue of the Great Depression that was occurring during this photo was taken, where many people had lost their jobs and had become homeless due to the circumstances. ‘

 

During the time of the depression-era, Lange had made it her mission to bring attention to the issues that had surfaced. This photo was intended to inform the public about the social issues that were occurring. The variety of Lange’s environments that she has photographed is not to highlight the differences between the environments, but to create a sense of familiarity and attention to the interchangeable indigence in different environments. 

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